Flash: Summer Is Hot

By Melissa August, Amanda Bower, Christina Lewis, Victoria Rainert, Sylvia Wong Shih Chin, Sora Song, Heather Won Tesoriero, Josh Tyrangiel

Summertime...and the journalism is easy. Construction workers swelter, air conditioners sell out--and who could live without the perennial "Tips to Beat the Heat"? How the media handled this year's "hot" story:

PICTURES Crucial to every summer story: cute kids under fountains or playing by fire hydrants; adorable animals trying to stay cool (like this polar bear snapped at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo).

ADVICE Drink lots of fluids, wear loose, light-color clothing: What else is new? (We plead guilty; see page 66, last week.) Most original, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: check your urine (dark=dehydration).

STUNTS Canada's London Free Press showed an egg frying on the trunk of a car; the New York Times had a photo series of an ice cube melting in the sun; a N.Y.C. TV station brought a camel into its studio.

ISSUES Big year for health problems, energy concerns, business impact. Old reliable: a rise in daytime movie attendance. New discovery: hot Wisconsin cows are producing less milk.